Barbara Cook, one the American theatre's great singers, has reigned supreme at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater since Dec. 30, when her popular and praised Mostly Sondheim concert debuted. Talk of an extension or transfer has been circulating for weeks. However, the scheduled return of QED to the Sunday-Monday slot at the Beaumont made an extension impossible.

Barbara Cook, one the American theatre's great singers, has reigned supreme at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater since Dec. 30, when her popular and praised Mostly Sondheim concert debuted. Talk of an extension or transfer has been circulating for weeks. However, the scheduled return of QED to the Sunday-Monday slot at the Beaumont made an extension impossible.

Well, where's there's a demand for tickets, there's a way. Cook will return to LCT after a few months rest on June 23. The encore engagement will last through Aug. 26.

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Cook's longtime arranger-musical director, Wally Harper, accompanies the legendary Cook — star of the original She Loves Me, The Music Man and Candide — on an amble through the songs of composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim (and others), 7:30 PM Sundays and Mondays only—the once and future slot of Peter Parnell’s QED. Official opening of the concert run is Jan. 14. Performances continue to Feb. 11 on the stage where Lincoln Center Theatre's Contact has been a smash. Lincoln Center is producing the concert run.

Cook memorably played Sally in the 1985 concert staging of Sondheim's Follies, soulfully singing "Losing My Mind," which she'll repeat that the Beaumont. John Burr will appear on bass. Since singing Mostly Sondheim at Carnegie Hall Feb. 2, 2001, Cook sang it in London's West End and is scheduled to perform the concert again at the Kennedy Center in summer 2002.

A special performance will be held New Year's Day, Tuesday Jan. 1, at 7:30 PM, in place of the regularly scheduled Monday Dec. 31 show.

Tickets range $40-$60 and are available at the Lincoln Center Theater box office (150 W. 65th St.), or by calling (212) 239 6200.

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Cook returns to the Vivian Beaumont Theater stage where she appeared 30 years ago with the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center in Ellis Rabb’s production of Gorky's Enemies with Nancy Marchand and Frances Sternhagen. Cook made her Broadway debut in 1951 as the ingenue lead in the musical Flahooley. She won the Tony Award playing Marian the Librarian in The Music Man.

In 1974 Cook began a creative partnership with musical director Wally Harper, launching a second career as a concert and cabaret artist.

Harper has been a musical director, composer, conductor, dance arranger and musical supervisor for many Broadway productions, including Company, Irene, Peter Pan, The Grand Tour, Brigadoon, Nine, A Day In Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, Grand Hotel, My One and Only and The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public.

Cook's most recent new two-CD album, a document of her February 2001 Carnegie Hall concert, Barbara Cook Sings Mostly Sondheim, was produced by Hugh Fordin. The album includes all the music from the Feb. 2, 2001 concert (including special guest Malcolm Gets' numbers) and has liner notes by Frank Rich, former drama critic of The New York Times. The conceit of the concert was to sing songs that Sondheim wrote and songs he said he wished he had written. This gives soprano Cook the chance to sing such oddities has "Hard-Hearted Hannah (the Vamp from Savannah)" and "The Eagle and Me."

Gets is the TV and theatre actor widely known for TV's "Caroline in the City." Here, he sings an obscure version of "Giants in the Sky," heard in a workshop of Into the Woods.

DISC ONE "Everybody Says Don't" "I Wonder What Became of Me?" "The Eagle And Me" "I Had Myself a True Love" "Into The Woods"/"Giants in the Sky" (Malcolm Gets) "Another Hundred People" (Malcolm Gets) "So Many People" (Malcolm Gets) "Let's Face the Music and Dance" (duet with Malcolm Gets) "The Song Is You" "Happiness" "Loving You" "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" "Not a Day Goes By" "Losing My Mind"